To Ride the Storm, Sir Peter Masefield, 1982; the story of the airship R101: about $200 if you can find it.The Wendler book (the title's in German, something like Karosserie Erhard Wendler), by Ralf Kieselbach, 1982 and (better second edition) 2001; the history of Wendler bodybuilding; about $75 for the 1982 edition, maybe more for the 2001.Porsche Argentina, by Iacona and another guy from Argentina whose name escapes me right now, published by Whitefly; the history of 1950s and 1960s Porsche racing in Argentina; about $180.Prototypes 1964-1974, by Weber and another German, published by PetrolPics; the photographic history of Porsche racing in that period, 904 to 917; about $170.Porsche 917x17, by Jeff Zwart, David Bull Publishing; outstanding studio photos of 17 917s; was $150, may be going out of print.

Just a reminder, if any of you are in or near California and interested in Porsche books, go to the Porsche & VW Literature Swap Meet at the LAX Hilton on Saturday, March 5th. When you go in the door, look to the left, follow the wall, and I'll be flogging books and posters.

To Ride the Storm, Sir Peter Masefield, 1982; the story of the airship R101: about $200 if you can find it.The Wendler book (the title's in German, something like Karosserie Erhard Wendler), by Ralf Kieselbach, 1982 and (better second edition) 2001; the history of Wendler bodybuilding; about $75 for the 1982 edition, maybe more for the 2001.Porsche Argentina, by Iacona and another guy from Argentina whose name escapes me right now, published by Whitefly; the history of 1950s and 1960s Porsche racing in Argentina; about $180.Prototypes 1964-1974, by Weber and another German, published by PetrolPics; the photographic history of Porsche racing in that period, 904 to 917; about $170.Porsche 917x17, by Jeff Zwart, David Bull Publishing; outstanding studio photos of 17 917s; was $150, may be going out of print.

Just a reminder, if any of you are in or near California and interested in Porsche books, go to the Porsche & VW Literature Swap Meet at the LAX Hilton on Saturday, March 5th. When you go in the door, look to the left, follow the wall, and I'll be flogging books and posters.

Frank

Well said Frank, though I'd go further. A bargain is good - my best ever was Setright's The Grand Prix for £1 at a country fair - but cheap, especially remaindered stock in a bankrupt chain, is probably less good.

I sense we're coming to a key moment for this pastime of ours. Bookshops are going bust, ebooks are taking a hold in the market, and it's getting harder to commission the kind of book many TNFers would like to buy. We need specialist sellers like you not only to survive but to thrive. All strength to you.

I'm fascinated by the Masefield book you mention. I rate him very highly, though I've never read his books, only articles, obituaries and pen portraits in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His papers are held in the research library at Brooklands, which he did so much to save as a Museum Trust, and they were a great help to me when I researched Amherst Villiers. Do please let me know if you come across a copy.

Will you be at Automobilia Monterey in August? If so, I look forward to putting a face to a name.

I'm fascinated by the Masefield book you mention. I rate him very highly, though I've never read his books, only articles, obituaries and pen portraits in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His papers are held in the research library at Brooklands, which he did so much to save as a Museum Trust, and they were a great help to me when I researched Amherst Villiers. Do please let me know if you come across a copy.

Will you be at Automobilia Monterey in August? If so, I look forward to putting a face to a name.

Paul:

I found my autographed copy on Amazon about six months ago. It's a fine read, with good insight into the R101 failure. Sorry, but I don't plan to be in Monterey this year--too many other things going on.

I sense we're coming to a key moment for this pastime of ours. Bookshops are going bust, ebooks are taking a hold in the market, and it's getting harder to commission the kind of book many TNFers would like to buy. We need specialist sellers like you not only to survive but to thrive. All strength to you.

Indeed. I've already mentioned the demise of BBS - WH Smith have picked up about 20 of their branches, but it looks like all the rest will close. HMV - owner of Waterstones - have already announced 20 closures (and that's just Waterstones, not HMV): they've also issued their second profit warning of the year and warned they may be at risk of breaking their banking covenants. There are strong rumours that Tim Waterstone (with Russian money) is going to buy the company back (again).

Borders UK is already dead and gone. In the US they've filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and may be closing as many as 275 stores. Barnes & Noble's Christmas quarter sales were down by 25%, although they're still trying to sound upbeat as their e-book sales are going through the roof and they're hoping to profit from Borders' troubles.

And then there's REDGroup, which went into administration last month. It owns 230 stores in Australia and New Zealand (115 Angus & Robertson, 67 Whitcoulls, 30 Borders, nine Bennett's and nine NZ airport stores) plus Borders Singapore. Unsecured creditors are owed AUS$44m (£27.46m) and an as yet unspecified number of store closures are expected starting this week.

It's beginning to look like the big centralised chain bookselling business model is falling apart ...

It's beginning to look like the big centralised chain bookselling business model is falling apart ...

Yep--too much overhead, too many stores, not enough customers--but that affects only new book sales. Most old, rare, and out-of-print bookstores are hanging in there. Many now sell far more books on Amazon or Abe than through their own web sites because Amazon and Abe have better worldwide exposure and huge numbers of return customers.

Incidentally, my pal and fellow bookseller Tom Warth has just published the updated sixth edition of his Car Book Value Guide. It contains current prices for over 18,000 such books. For those who don't know Tom, he's been in the car book business for nearly 50 years, having started Classic Motorbooks in the U.S. in the early 1960s. Today he runs T.E. Warth (used and o/p) and Enthusiast Books (new). Part of the profits from this new book will go to his favorite charity, Books For Africa, which places millions of books in schools and libraries there. His web sites are www.tewarthautobooks.biz and www.enthusiastbooks.com.

''This book is a collection of notes dedicated to all those who helped the engineer Sergio Limone to "play with cars" for so many years and allows Limone to believe that, ultimately, the effort was really worthwhile. From the Autobianchi A112 Abarth to the Punto Super 2000, it reviews all the cars tuned by Abarth, including the rally cars who brought glory to the Italian manufacturers in rally sport: the successful Lancia Rally 037, the powerful Lancia Delta S4 and the monster Lancia ECV. ''

You will be surprised ,'what' and for whom they did development.((A4 hardback, 224 pages 380+ unseen photos, 35 Euros)

Having received the Quentin Spurring Le Mans 1970-79 book thursday, I have spent a few days browsing through it. As with the Spurring book dealing with the previous decade, this is another book high on pictures and notes about this and that and will likely be my future reference for Le Mans in the 1970s with its easily overwieved structure. Together with the ACO Le Mans encyclopedia they form a very formidable alliance.

Two pictures are out of place in this book though, both in the 1977 chapter. Page 274 shows a number 3 Silk Cut Jaguar on race morning, but likely in 1990 rather than 1977! On page 280 there's a picture of the Porsche team working over their pair of 936s in a garage, but in Essex sponsorship suggesting 1979. As three pictures on the opposite page shows the Martini colours of 1977, this ought to have been spotted before print.

I've just put some motor racing books on eBay and it occured to me after I'd done it that I should have given anyone watching this thread first chance.

There's nothing particularly exciting but Forza Amon seems to be out of print and is being advertised for silly prices on the web. I only want £6 for my copy

Thanks for the heads up, after I had perused your items (and made a bid) I continued looking and found an edition of John Starkeys 930 to 935 The Turbo Porsches - 2nd edition. The seller is looking for £375 ! I have the 1st edition and I also have the later From R to GT3R The Racing Porsches 911 & 930.

The 2nd edition is said to be "updated & expanded". Should I be looking to add this to my collection (not at £375 I must add !) or are the contents pretty well covered by the other 2 books ? Also, I understand the author has attracted some criticism over inaccuracies in his other books (Lola for instance), are the Porsche books reliable ?

Looking at the list of bids received, Allen, isn't it amazing how little interest there is in books about 'modern' F1 in contrast to those about earlier eras? Or perhaps it isn't ;)

With the exception of Forza Amon, there's not really much interest at all, even in the Daniele Amaduzzi book which is a pristine example of a beautiful book. On the other hand, I also put up some Garfield books at the same time and there's lots of interest in those. Maybe we just have to accept that motor racing, at least since the 1980s, isn't as interesting as the adventures of a cartoon cat.

The unbought books will go the charity shop - if I can find a shop willing to take them...

I note that when discussing the 1935 Le Mans race that Mason concludes with the Alfa winning. Which of course Hindmarsh/Fontes would contest, were they still with us, as they won with the 4 1/2 Lagonda.

Not in the same league as these books but nevertheless, this is probably the better place to alert anyone who is interested in reading about the drivers from New Zealand who 'did good' when they left the shores of their own country.

'The Drivers' is a New Zealand market only book portraying the careers of fifty Kiwi drivers who raced with distinction success outside their own country from the Brooklands period to 2007. Published in 2007, none of the books were ever signed by the author.I have five books which I have now signed and numbered. At a cost of £25, one of these copies can be obtained by going to the Kiwi Drivers website http://www.kiwidrive...m/purchase.html

I was not present, but I happen to know that David is publishing Michael Argetsinger's upcoming book marking the 50th anniversary of the USGP at Watkins Glen. He is also working on a David Philips book covering Honda efforts at the Indianapolis 500.

I was not present, but I happen to know that David is publishing Michael Argetsinger's upcoming book marking the 50th anniversary of the USGP at Watkins Glen. He is also working on a David Philips book covering Honda efforts at the Indianapolis 500.

Received today: classical biography--lots of text and 4 'portions' of nice pictures...IMO very entertaining and , I did know the Autosport competition of 1970(where he won the Lotus FF), but what he (Tiff) all did, even F1 and 14 times Le Mans...Only negative no 'palmares'. Greatest photo: Tiff's rather used TR 7 ,which he sold to a certain Nigel Mansell!! And bought a 4 year old Ford Capri instead..

Received today: classical biography--lots of text and 4 'portions' of nice pictures...IMO very entertaining and , I did know the Autosport competition of 1970(where he won the Lotus FF), but what he (Tiff) all did, even F1 and 14 times Le Mans...Only negative no 'palmares'. Greatest photo: Tiff's rather used TR 7 ,which he sold to a certain Nigel Mansell!! And bought a 4 year old Ford Capri instead..

Best regards Michael (one week without new books!!!)

Autosport's "review" a few weeks ago was pretty enlightening. They hadn't received a copy, so proceeded to let us know what they thought they would think about it.

Received today: classical biography--lots of text and 4 'portions' of nice pictures...IMO very entertaining and , I did know the Autosport competition of 1970(where he won the Lotus FF), but what he (Tiff) all did, even F1 and 14 times Le Mans...Only negative no 'palmares'. Greatest photo: Tiff's rather used TR 7 ,which he sold to a certain Nigel Mansell!! And bought a 4 year old Ford Capri instead..

Best regards Michael (one week without new books!!!)

Just received my copy-only up to chapter 15 so far but certainly full of nostalgia Small point Autosport competion when be won the Lotus was in 1971-and I don't think he SOLD the TR7 to Nigel-it was only on loan as part of the Unipart deal?Hardly the greatest photo-I would nominate the Indian F.Pacific race-first I have ever seen of these events.

Just received my copy-only up to chapter 15 so far but certainly full of nostalgia Small point Autosport competion when be won the Lotus was in 1971-and I don't think he SOLD the TR7 to Nigel-it was only on loan as part of the Unipart deal?Hardly the greatest photo-I would nominate the Indian F.Pacific race-first I have ever seen of these events.

Dear Rob: of course you are right!! The prizegiving was in 1971..And the sold TR7-I 'm naive enough to believe the caption..for me the photo (which is of course dull) together with story behind made it...Another 'bon mot' : Mrs Needell (mother) teached needlework!!

Karl Ludvigsen recently sent out a press release that he is backing off his automotive writing and has shipped his extensive automotive archives to the Collier collection in Florida. He wrote that he plans to finish a current book project on supercharging, update his Corvette book, then focus on aviation topics. This marks the end of an automotive writing era. I can think of no one who rivals Karl in the production of excellent books and magazine articles over the past half-century. He's been going strong since the 1950s and has produced a series of absolutely definitive books, especially on Porsche. If you, like me, wish to thank him for his amazing lifetime of effort, send him a PM via TNF or an e-mail to kel@ludvigsen.com.

It arrived today and is superb. Crystal clear photos, many unpublished from the '50s and '60s. One of those books to build a library on.

I couldn't agree more, fabulous pictures from all the great photographers of the era including Robert Daley, Gunther Molter, Nigel Snowdon, Yves Guichard as well as those from Louis Klemantaski himself. There's also a nice afterword from Darren Heath (whose 'Big Picture' photos appear on the BBC F1 page) too giving some impression of the differences between the photography styles of then compared to today.

An added bonus is the information on how to purchase any of the photos from the book from the Klemantaski Collection, I am sorely tempted to purchase the picture of Sir Stirling Moss looking imperious in the Mercedes from 1955.

I have recently sold a load of surplus stuff (books, posters, magazines etc) on ebay to raise some money for some Sports Car Racing books which I wanted but couldn't easily afford. In 4 months of feverish trading I raised enough to buy, and now thoroughly recommend, the following:

Gruppe 5 - Die Silhouetteformel 1976-1981 - Harold Schw - German text, but as it's full of gorgeous pictures of 1970's Group 5 cars, it's well worth it in my opinion. Just a shame that nothing's available in English !

Porsche Kremer Racing - A Photographic History 1966-1981, in German and English. It's a collection of photos so the main text is captions. Beautifully produced book in a slip case. My only slight disappointment was that their Le Mans participations weren't covered in more depth.

Scuderia Filipinetti by Ed Veuvink - a subject I know little about, so I've bought it to read later. Very pleased at first browse.

Ten Days in Sicily (Corsa Research) by Tony Adriaensens A glorious photo essay of the 1966 Targa Florio, from the cameras of four young Englishmen who travelled to Sicily, this is reviewed earlier in this thread so I won't re-hash that, but it is a beautiful book; a treasure.

Admittedly these are all rather expensive books, but I felt it important to add them to my collection. Apart from their content, and tactile beauty, they are sure to be a sound investment. I have no regrets. Regrets ?? I'm delighted !

My tip to anyone interested in buying, would be to buy them on ebay from a German seller (I won't plug the one I used, but PM me if you want to know their ebay ID) who are MUCH cheaper than UK sellers (on or off ebay) and Amazon. All about the Euro exchange rate I assume. Anyway, gift horses and mouths !

I don't know if it's allowed to present one's own book here, but since I've been advised to do so by other Forum members, here I am...

In three weeks time, benoit deliege Editions will publish a new book on Equipe Nationale Belge, the Belgian racing team that ran Ferraris all over Europe, Jaguars at le Mans, Listers when they could (in 1958), finished on the Le Mans podium in 1957, shifted to single seaters with F2 Coopers in 1959 and ended up with the infamous Emeryson F1 in 1961. But there is much more to say about ENB than that, so if moderators don't send me to jail, I'll post more details...
Some Forum members may alread have read the Willy Mairesse biography, which was written by the same team.

I don't know if it's allowed to present one's own book here, but since I've been advised to do so by other Forum members, here I am...

In three weeks time, benoit deliege Editions will publish a new book on Equipe Nationale Belge, the Belgian racing team that ran Ferraris all over Europe, Jaguars at le Mans, Listers when they could (in 1958), finished on the Le Mans podium in 1957, shifted to single seaters with F2 Coopers in 1959 and ended up with the infamous Emeryson F1 in 1961. But there is much more to say about ENB than that, so if moderators don't send me to jail, I'll post more details... Some Forum members may alread have read the Willy Mairesse biography, which was written by the same team.

I wish you very success with it. Do tell us more.

And do you still have copies of the Mairesse book for sale? How may I buy a signed, dedicated copy?

It arrived today and is superb. Crystal clear photos, many unpublished from the '50s and '60s. One of those books to build a library on.

I couldn't agree more, fabulous pictures from all the great photographers of the era including Robert Daley, Gunther Molter, Nigel Snowdon, Yves Guichard as well as those from Louis Klemantaski himself. There's also a nice afterword from Darren Heath (whose 'Big Picture' photos appear on the BBC F1 page) too giving some impression of the differences between the photography styles of then compared to today.

Couldn't agree more with these comments. A fabulous book which should be in every motoring library - and incredible value, too.

Posting some info as this book is of interest in both regular & special editions.
From Amazon:
Real Racers -- Formula 1 in the 1950s and 1960s: A Driver's Perspective. Rare and Classic Images from the Klemantaski Collection [Hardcover] Stuart Codling (Author), Darren Heath (Afterword), David Coulthard (Foreword)
The basic version is $40, discounted down to US$30. Publisher: Motorbooks; First edition (April 11, 2011) 208 pages, 12.4 x 9.9 inch.
From www.klemcoll.com/
The special edition is limited to 100 numbered copies, signed by Stuart Codling and presented in a custom slipcase.

Karl Ludvigsen recently sent out a press release that he is backing off his automotive writing and has shipped his extensive automotive archives to the Collier collection in Florida. He wrote that he plans to finish a current book project on supercharging, update his Corvette book, then focus on aviation topics. This marks the end of an automotive writing era. I can think of no one who rivals Karl in the production of excellent books and magazine articles over the past half-century. He's been going strong since the 1950s and has produced a series of absolutely definitive books, especially on Porsche. If you, like me, wish to thank him for his amazing lifetime of effort, send him a PM via TNF or an e-mail to kel@ludvigsen.com.

Frank

I suppose if you've been writing as long as he has you should get to write about what you wish, but that's hardly happy news. My Ludvigsen books could occupy their own shelf.

While ordering Real Racers on Amazon tonight 2 other books popped up as suggestions, The Golden Age of Formula 1 which I also ordered but also Team Lotus in Formula 1 by Rainer Schlegelmilch & Hartmut Lehbrink.

Does anyone know anything about this book as info on Amazon is limited but it looks like it has a couple of CD's with it?